DARPA wants save lives by filling people with packing foam

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[Warning: Video contains an animated wound but it’s SFW.]

DARPA is looking to spruce up internal wound treatment by filling people with what could only be explained as packing foam for human bodies. DARPA notes that when dealing with internal injuries and hemorrhaging medical technology isn’t quite up to par, and there’s little that can be done in the field before a patient is brought to a facility that can provide more in-depth care.

To alleviate that problem, DARPA is working on a foam-based technology that, essentially, fills up a wounded internal cavity with foam, effectively putting the injury on hold and giving a patient a fighting chance to make it to a better-equipped facility.

The technology starts off as two liquids that are injected into the body. When the liquids mix, they form a polyurethane polymer that expands to around 30 times its initial volume. The foam is able to expand through liquid or clotted blood, and, once expanded, it molds around the internal organs. This process keeps everything in place, and is designed to stabilize the wound(s) and prevent further blood loss. The resulting foam is easily administered in the field through injection, and doctors can easily remove it by hand afterwards.

So far, the test models have only seen the foam used on the abdominal cavity, but testing has proven fruitful. Assuming a patient’s abdominal cavity remains intact, the foam has shown it can control internal hemorrhaging for at least an hour. The foam increased the rate of patient survival up to three hours after sustaining the injury, and reduced loss of blood by six times!

There is no word yet on when — or even if — the technology will be put into the field, but DARPA is expecting to continue the work through a prototype device approved by the FDA at some point.